Blanch the shucked beans in heavily salted water until you see some of them splitting. Drain, let cool, and remove the tough membrane around each bean. Put in a cuisinart with garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Pulse to a coarse puree. (Don't over process or it gets gummy) Hope you like the result!

Cook them in boiling, salted water for one minute. Remove outer pod. Cover with olive oil and bring to a simmer. When bubbles just break the surface, turn off the heat and allow them to cool for 10 minutes.

Process favas and half of the oil with a minced garlic clove and a little parmesan cheese. Add more olive oil to reach desired consistency.

Once you take them out of the pod, toss in boiling water for 1 minute. Cool and remove the outer membrane. Then what I like to do is saute some garlic for about a minute, add the beans and cook for 5-7 minutes until tender. Yummy! Now if I could only find somewhere to buy them still in the pods.

Yeah, I'm seeing favas everywhere at the Farmer's Market. My favorite prepared version is at Sham, which sautees them with garlic and cilantro. Interestingly, they get their favas from somewhere in the Valley, not the Santa Monica Farmer's Market.

I'm not surprised by Sham sourcing their fava beans elsewhere. Depending on the source, they can be more expensive than meat, or priced like fast food. I think the quality will be very similar as long as it's relatively fresh. After peeling the beans away from the pods and the outer membranes, there's really not a whole lot left relative to what one pays for per pound. Knowing how easy they are to grow, I personally have a hard time reasoning the prices at some of the FM stalls. At the same time, I know the pricing is unique as the market for favas is relatively narrow and that demand in that market can be strong.